Edgewood City Hall Needs Growing Room, Council Told

EDGEWOOD — City hall has become too cramped for city workers and should be expanded, city council members were told last week.

But before anyone starts to tear down walls and add on rooms, the council may decide to hire a consultant to determine the city's long-term office space needs.

Council President Franklin Ward raised the issue Tuesday at a public council meeting at city hall, 405 Larue Ave.

Mayor Dorris Bobber, who has had to share office space with a secretary because of the space crunch, supported the idea.

Bobber said she would rather see the city spend money on city hall than on the proposed purchase of land for a city park.

City Clerk Linda Cunningham agreed. ''We need space where we can do some work uninterrupted,'' Cunningham said. She added that the space problem has grown so severe the city has no place to set up the computer system that is to be delivered soon.

Council members discussed two ways of creating more space. They could remodel city hall and move the police department to a new location, or build on additions.

Council members made no decision Tuesday but agreed to discuss the matter more. They asked the staff to draw up a list of space problems, indicate what they think may be the city's expansion needs, and identify sources of possible building funds. That information will help the council decide whether to hire an architectural consultant or use the city engineer for the planning study.

The city council also gave a unanimous final vote of approval Tuesday to a new city code that prohibits nudity and any type of sexual act in businesses that sell alcoholic beverages.

The code received an initial vote of approval at a public hearing Nov. 19. The council plans to discuss later if more zoning laws are needed to regulate the distance of adult entertainment businesses to residential districts, churches and schools.

The basis for the ban on nudity and sexually explicit acts or materials rests on similar codes that have been upheld by courts and adopted by, among other places, Daytona Beach and Lee County.

The code asserts there is evidence that ''nudity and sexual conduct and depiction thereof coupled with alcohol in public places begets undesirable behavior, and that prostitution, attempted rape, rape, murder, and assaults on citizens and police officers are known to occur in and around'' such businesses.

The council also voted Tuesday to establish new building permit fees.

Among the fees that will be increased is the fee charged for construction site inspections. At the suggestion of Ward, the council set a minimum fee of $200 up to the first $10,000 of commerical construction cost, and an additional 2 percent on costs above $10,000, on all such inspections.

The council could not agree on what charge to impose on residential construction and remodeling. Council members generally favored a base fee of between $50 to $100.

However, council member Charles Vasseur questioned the higher fee, predicting there would be a lot of complaints if it passed. Following more discussion, the council agreed to postpone a vote on that fee until the city's staff could gather examples of fees set by other cities.